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Once More to the Lake

nce More to the LakeE. B. White’s Once More to the Lake is a very well written essay. The back and forth reflections of his childhood to adulthood is engaging. The way he compares his child self to his son arrests the whole essay. White’s story captures the essence of childhood memories. Reflecting beautifully will bring beauty, this is what White did. Retrospect is the main idea of White’s Once More to the Lake. Throughout the essay, White constantly reflects on his childhood and days at the lake in Maine. He often compares his own son to the days of his youth. White also catches himself not knowing the difference between his son and himself at times, briefly going through déjà vu like trance when reminiscing. It seems as if his connection to the past has somehow slipped into his present day reality. The imagery White uses in his essay mirrors poetry. He makes a very strong point with the painting of his statement. For example, when speaking of his imagery of the lake; “I wondered how time would have marred this unique, this holy spot—the coves and streams, the hills that the sun set behind, the camps and the paths behind the camps” he paints a picture. Once again, when reflecting how beautiful the mornings were; “The lake was cool and motionless, remembered how the bedroom smelled of the lumber it was made of and the wet woods whose scent entered through the screen”. Very valid details and descriptions are made when he reflects. This is great. All great authors should make very detailed descriptions when stating or telling something that they really want the reader to capture. White actually takes you to where or what he is talking about.

The significance of White’s last sentence was very appealing. Sort of like a cliff hanger, it leaves you pondering a bit, leaves you wanting to know more. The statement is foreshadowed where he sates “My groin felt the chill of death”. A statement such as that could be a bit bewildering, however, when resonating what the...

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...OnceMore to the Lake by E.B. White
The clock is always ticking and the world is always changing whether we want it to or not. In E.B. Whites "OnceMore to the Lake", A present day father takes his child to an area his family would frequent for a week every summer. Upon arriving back at his childhood retreat, he is hit with an almost overwhelming sense of nostalgia. Once a child on a family vacation, the narrator is now reliving his childhood based on the experiences of his own child visiting the lake. This story is a testament to the reality of the famous quote "time waits for no one".
In the beginning of the story, the narrator is nothing more than a curious child on vacation. As time goes on he is soon to find the realization that life is no longer the same. No longer is the narrator a child but is now and adult and gains the responsibility of being a father. In shock and curiosity of where the time has gone, he soon finds himself back at the scene he remembered as a child. His curiosity is evident in the quote "I wondered how time would have marred this unique, this holy spot". Shortly after arrival however, he finds that time has not changed the setting as much as he would have thought. This is evident in his quote "when I got back there with my boy, and we settled into a camp... I could tell it was pretty much going to be the...

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"OnceMore to the Lake" is an essay first published in Harper's magazine in 1941 by author E. B. White. Oncemore to the lake” is a personal and autobiographical writing shared by E.B.White and therefore, the main character is the author itself and White’s beloved family. In abstract “Oncemore to the lake” is a renowned writing of E.B.White in which the author narrates a story recalling his childhood experience of resorting to a lake in Maine, however the story pertains more with how the author is attached with his background when he revisits the lake with his child.
The plot synopsis revolves around how E.B.White cannot sustain the thought of his transformation from childhood to parenthood, stranded within the grooves of his mind and fantasied in a beautiful dream.
Moreover, this piece of writing is an extol vignette on a remarkable spiritual adventure.
“..But outside of that vacation was a success” reading this line spotlights that there was certainly a purpose behind writing this piece, a message for the readers to perceive. Each and every minute detail serves its cause.
“The author by using such overwhelming diction and insinuation when he mentions his illusion of dual existence and transposition makes concealing truth behind this story so credible.
Noticing the surroundings of the...

...Rhetorical Analysis of E.B. White?s ?OnceMore to the Lake? E.B. White?s ?Oncemore to the Lake? provides keen insight into the life of a middle-aged man reflecting on the past, present, and future. The setting of the essay primarily resides at a lake that offered the author endless amounts of pleasure as a child. Now as an adult, the author wishes to relive this experience and try to recapture his youth. Throughout the essay a major theme develops: Although the passage of time produces a link between generations, it in itself reflects human beings own mortality.
From the age of five, the author began to enjoy perennial pleasure at a majestic lake in Maine with his family. As an adult, however, he seems to have strayed away from his youth to a certain degree, and now calls himself a ?salt-water man,? no longer able to enjoy the pleasures of a fresh, youthful life (lake). While this remains true, the ?restlessness of the tides? sometimes prevails, and he begins to yearn for his childhood memories of adolescence and happiness.
In an effort to satisfy these desires, he returns to the lake in his early forties with his son. On the journey to the lake he ponders about how the lake might differ from his own recollections. His mind starts to link past events together in a chain of thought that seems to tie them...

...An Analysis of E.B Whites, “OnceMore to the Lake”
In E.B Whites essay, “OnceMore to the Lake” he reflects on his summer outing with his son. Throughout the trip, memories of his childhood, long forgotten, resurface themselves as he experiences the same vacation with his own son. These memories create in him a feeling as if time has not changed and that he is reliving his old days. His father used to take him to the same camping spot as a boy. He was certain that there would be changes since then, but on arrival his senses are awakened and old feelings revived as he takes in the unchanged sights, sounds, and smells of the peaceful lake in Maine.
The overall theme of this story is the acceptance of aging and the passing of time. The passage of time throughout the story has a relentless hold on White, he struggles throughout as reality becomes harder and harder for him to grasp. The author incorporates many literary devices which add to his overall vivid descriptions and comparisons, a few which include: imagery, tone, and symbolism. By these techniques the narrator is able to set the reader’s imagination on fire! Throughout this literary work detailed comparisons are blended in as he remembers his own vacation to the lake as a young boy. These comparisons make it hard for him to face the fact that he has aged very much since that time. The feelings and...

...The concept of memory reveals a tension between past and present, as memory
spans days, years, and decades, resurrecting the past as an integral part of the present moment. In E.B. White’s essay “OnceMore to the Lake,” a father struggles with an internal conflict between the present and the past, and between memory and reality. Through the use of contrasting stylistic elements, as well as synchronization and repetition, the father’s insistence that “there had been no years” (446) blurs the line between his memory and his experiences with his son, altering the very concept of time itself.
White first generates an impression of dichotomy in his essay through the contrasting of two
tones, one tense and the other tranquil. When relating his previous vacations, White uses phrases
of quietude, describing the lake as having “the stillness of the cathedral” (445) or of appearing
“infinitely remote …” (445). His choice of “stillness” and “cathedral” implies a sense of awe and
reverence for the lake, while “infinitely remote” accentuates the sheer magnitude of the lake’s
serenity. However, when describing the present, White jolts the reader with a conflicting tone
of unease, made even more abrasive by its juxtaposition with the peaceful tone: “I wondered how
time would have marred this unique, this holy spot…” (445). Here, the narrator pauses after
unique, underscoring the...

...﻿Vanessa Soler
Professor Isabel Grayson
English 109
September 17, 2013
The Reality of Life
In the essay, “OnceMore to the Lake” by E.B White, a father returns with his son, to a vacation lake in Maine, where his father used to take him when he was younger. When the father spends time there with his son, he begins to reminisce on the experience he shared at the lake with his own father. The thought of immortality and timelessness tricks the narrator into believing no time has passed. While the father is referring back to these memories, the author makes a transition from fantasy to reality. Eventually, the father identifies differences in what his son experiences at the lake and what he experienced at the lake when he was a child. The author shows the shifting between what he thinks is real and what is not. He witnesses a lake that to him never changes because he sees himself in his son. In the essay, “OnceMore to the Lake”, through the use of illusions shifting from fantasy to reality, and then the termination of these misconceptions, the father comes to the realization that time does not stop and everyone experiences life differently, creating their own memories.
From the father perspective, time appears to stand still in “OnceMore to the Lake.” Timelessness is...

...I’ve noticed my parents restricted my freedom more and more as I grew away from adolescence and grew into adulthood. It had begun to finally frustrate me and the last straw was during Sunday dinner when my dad banned me from working a part time job. I was confused because with my age I really don’t need their permission but thankfully mom explained, for dad was a man with few words, about their unreal desires to keep me their kid forever and stop them from ageing away in time. I felt horrible that through my dad’s eye he saw me as a walking, ticking time bomb reminding him of how old he is. At first I did not see the big deal about it, but then all of a sudden an overwhelming flood of fear consumed me when I realized that like my dad I also feared my age, for I no longer had and never could duplicate the comforts I had in my teenage High School years. These past 4 years of my life I had been pretty much care free occupying myself with typical teen stuff like homework, sports, and friends but now at this moment, minus the homework, it has all slipped away. The sports that dragged me from bed at 6 o’clock on Sunday mornings in order to get to practice in time, or the friends that would joke around until 1 am in my garage even though we had morning practice the next day, were all gone now that everyone chose their own path after High School. It was at that moment I realized that what White had experienced in “Oncemore...

...A Summary of “OnceMore to the Lake”
Jason Mraz
Eng 101
Essay#1- Revision
In his essay "OnceMore to the Lake", E.B. White shares the story of reliving his childhood memories of going to a lake in Maine. As an adult, E.B. White lives by the ocean and has a love for the salt water, but every so often he get the urge to revisit the lake he knew as a child. One day that desire was strong enough to motivate him to take his son to the same place his father had taken him so many times before. Upon arriving to the lake, White anticipates the changes that may have taken place since his last visit many years ago. During his vacation White notices that although the arrival to the lake was different, as well as the boats which were on the lake, the lake itself had not changed at all.
The commute to the lake had changed from what E.B. White had originally experienced as a child. The trip to the lake was now a completely new experience. Originally, getting to the lake was a long, highly anticipated journey, starting with the train station and loading luggage onto horse buggies which would take them on a ten mile trip leading to the lake. The anticipation would grow as the carriage got closer to the lake....